


Be My Valentine

by Abbie



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Tommy Lives AU, Tommy/Felicity if you squint, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 11:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbie/pseuds/Abbie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neither Tommy nor Felicity has a Valentine--except maybe each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be My Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> A five-sentence-fic prompt by Macyaudenstarr that definitely did not stay only five sentences long. Hell, I'll admit I didn't even try.

"I know I'm not who you wanted for Valentine's Day, but I hope you like the flowers anyway."

Felicity stood at her door, oversize gray sweatshirt slipping off her shoulder and hanging down to mid-thigh over her favorite, well-worn teal leggings and bright orange socks; she blinked in confusion at Tommy, who stood in the hall, raindrops still sitting in his hair and spotting his favorite dark blue dress shirt. He was wearing the charcoal slacks, but his jacket was missing.

She lowered her eyes to the flowers he held out to her, a simple, elegant bouquet of lilies—not a flower or scent she particularly enjoyed… but that she happened to know were Laurel Lance’s favorite. She narrowed her eyes at the slightly-bedraggled blooms and tilted her head, then lifted her questioning gaze to Tommy’s face, seeing the sadness tugging at the corners of his smile, the defeat in the slope of his shoulders.

"Laurel didn’t want them?" Her tone was sympathetic, but Tommy winced.

"Ah, no… apparently Valentine’s flowers are pushing past the strictly-enforced ‘just friends’ line." He sighed, and she stepped aside, gesturing him into her apartment. He slipped by and she followed him into the kitchen, where he dug around under her sink for a vase to fill with water.

She didn’t have the heart to tell him she was just planning on throwing them out after he left. She really wasn’t a big fan of lilies. She preferred a riot of color in her bouquets.

Not that anyone was buying _her_ flowers.

The thought made her sigh as she leaned against the island counter, and Tommy looked over his shoulder at her with raised eyebrows as he arranged the lilies—oddly, beside the toaster. “What’s the sigh about?”

She scrunched her nose up at him. “The fact that you totally knew I’d be home on Valentine’s Day and that I’d be sad and pathetic enough to accept your rejected flowers.”

He turned around, smiling at her incredulously as he laughingly said, “Ouch. Are we feeling a little sensitive, Felicity?”

She rolled her eyes, but looked down at her hands where they picked at the hem of her sweater. “…Maybe. I mean, it’s not like I’m desperate and needy or like I was crying into a bucket of ice cream over a marathon of romcoms before you got here. I was vegging out to Veronica Mars, actually, and thinking about ordering a pizza.” She compressed her lips and sighed irritably through her nose. “I swear I’m not one of those need-a-boyfriend-on-Valentine’s-or-my-life-is-a-failure people. I just…”

He stepped up close to her, smiling gently and slipping his fingers around her palms, pulling her hands off her clothes and squeezing. “Just what, Felicity?”

She shrugged, staring at his shoulder to avoid the soft kindness in his eyes. It felt like pity. She hated pity. Especially pity from guys who just bounced off their One True Love’s rejection _again_ , like it was nothing. “I don’t know, I’m actually feeling a little pathetic this time around? Everybody has somebody. I feel like the spare wheel.” He squeezed her hands again, and she reluctantly met his gaze—there it was, that sweet kindness, undercut by amusement. “Diggle has Lyla and Oliver and Sara are probably engaged in some romantic sparring at the foundry—“ she interrupted herself with a wrinkled nose and furrowed brow, “Which, ugh, probably means I’m going to have to erase more footage from the security cameras; it’d be nice if they remembered we _have_ those and that _I_ watch those recordings.”

His fingers unwrapped from hers and slid up her wrists, comfortingly chafing her arms below where her sleeves were rolled up at her elbows. “Hey, I don’t have anybody either.”

She nodded to the lilies on the counter and smiled at him wryly. “Yes, you do. You will always have somebody.”

Tommy sighed, hands moving to her shoulders and holding her so he could lean down and press a kiss to her cheek. Leaning back, his eyes were solemn. “You’re right that I will always love Laurel, but I don’t think I will ever _have_ her again. If I ever had her at all. I can’t blame her for wanting distance from me and Ollie. And she’s… she’s doing _really_ great without us.” His eyes dropped, and his hands did too, but it was her turn to catch his and squeeze. “She’s better off without us. Without me. And I’m not saying that to be pathetic and so you can tell me,” his voice went high in a silly, syrupy falsetto, “‘Oh, no, Tommy, that can’t _possibly_ be true, who could _ever_ be better off without you _._ ’”

She laughed and hit him lightly on the chest. “I do _not_ sound like that.”

He grinned. “Fair enough.” The smile dimmed. “But she is better off. She’s happier. She’s going amazing places with her life. And I thought I could be the one to go there with her, and god I wanted to be. But my insecurity got in the way, and if she took me back it probably would again. We can’t erase our history. But I can let her go to be happy, to live her future.” He turned a little from her, one hand slipping free, and looked at the flowers by the toaster. “I had to try, tonight. One last time. But that door is closed. I have to let it be closed.”

"To respect her choice," Felicity murmured, sympathetically rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.

He looked back to her. “Loving her means letting her have what she needs. What she needs is not me. I can live with it. She needs me to.”

Felicity made a small sound in the back of her throat and leaned in for a hug, wrapping her arms around his waist as his came up to circle her back. “We are such a pair.”

He suddenly laughed by her ear, chin down on her shoulder. Pulling back, eyes crinkling at the corners, he said, “You know what, we really are. And we are both far too amazing to be sitting around being sad at each other on Valentine’s Day.”

She smiled, but raised a skeptical brow at him. “Did you have something in mind?”

Tommy’s grin spread wide. “I think I do. Felicity Smoak, will you be my Valentine?” She narrowed her eyes at him, smile shrinking warily, but he shook his head. “Let’s go to dinner. Do a movie. The whole stupid coupley shebang. Fuck all the traditions that say you can only have a Valentine’s date with a significant other.”

Her eyes still narrowed, now consideringly, Felicity’s smile grew once more as she tilted her head to one side in a show of indecision. “Will you buy me chocolates?”

"The most delicious chocolates that can be found," he declared, laughing. "Now, if you want to you can just put some shoes on and go as you are, I can dig that, but if you want to go get dolled up, I suggest you go get started. While you go transform into even more of a knockout than usual, I will pull some strings for a dining reservation and check movie listings."

She turned a little towards the hall, hesitating and grinning. Then, nodding, she said, “Alright. Let’s do it.”

He pumped his fist into the air in exaggerated victory and she laughed, scurrying out of the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of sight, Tommy turned, still smiling softly, towards the rejected lilies. Exhaling slowly, he came to a decision and pulled the flowers from the vase and threw them into the trash can beside the fridge. They really weren’t Felicity’s style at all.

He added his florist to his mental list of calls to make while Felicity was getting ready, and wondered if they’d still have any bouquets of wildflowers.

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously this is an AU where Season 2 mostly still happens--minus Laurel's awful addiction/breakdown storyline, since she's not carrying any guilt about Tommy's death. Instead, Laurel moves on with her life past billionaire boy-drama and kicks ass.


End file.
